Plenty of executives and investors say they are worried about climate change. “Yet the reality is that meaningful global environmental regulations are nowhere on the horizon. The risk of severe climate change is thus rising, posing physical threats to many firms. Most remain blind to these, often wilfully so. They should start worrying about them.”

“Germany gets more than a third of its electricity from burning coal,” but a government-panel “has recommended that Germany stop burning coal to generate electricity by 2038 at the latest, as part of efforts to curb climate change.” The proposal needs approval by lawmakers, but a recent ZDF opinion poll indicates strong public support: “73 percent of Germans agree a quick exit from coal is very important.”

“Temperatures have soared above average across much of the continent, peaking at 49.1°C (120.38°F) in the town of Marble Bar.” This is “not the only extreme heat event Australia has experienced of late.” Blistering heat waves have been common since 2017 and the “Great Barrier Reef will never be the same following the devastating marine heat wave of 2015 and 2016.” Climate change is continuing “to rear its undeniable head… we can expect more extreme weather events like this up ahead.”

“A carbon tax is in theory a more efficient way than regulation to reduce carbon emissions. But after decades of global conferences, forests of reports, dire television documentaries, celebrity appeals, school-curriculum overhauls and media bludgeoning, voters don’t believe that climate change justifies policies that would raise their cost of living and hurt the economy.”

“Global warming is a Midwest crisis in the making.” A just released federal climate change report predicts “sopping rains will damage crops, then heat waves will fry them. Humid conditions will spur the growth of pests and pathogens that will degrade the quality of stored corn or soybeans. Before mid-century… Midwest agricultural productivity will slip back to levels of the 1980s.”

“If the US and China actually decided to engage in a prolonged cold war, the economic consequences–however dire–would be dwarfed by another consequence: a lack of sufficiently strong action to combat climate change.”

“No consequence of global warming is as self-evident as higher temperatures. Earth is roughly 1°C hotter today than it was before humanity started belching greenhouse gases into the atmosphere during the Industrial Revolution.” This summer the consequences are widespread: “Heat is causing problems across the world.” But if global warming continues, “the toll on human lives is hard to imagine.” The bright spot is that better government response appears to be saving some lives. “If only the world could take in a similar lesson about the importance of stopping climate change in the first place.”

“Climate change is making the Arab world more miserable…Already-long dry seasons are growing longer and drier, withering crops. Heat spikes are a growing problem too, with countries regularly notching lethal summer temperatures. Stretch such trends out a few years and they seem frightening—a few decades and they seem apocalyptic.”

While the Trump administration is busy removing references to issues it would rather not acknowledge and covering them up with doublespeak, “the reality is that…the burning of fossil fuels by humans, spewing carbon and other greenhouse gases into the air… has increased the temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans. And unless we take quick and radical steps… the world as we know it will change, with species die-offs, coastline changes, more intense major storms and altered drought and rain patterns. And it will happen whether Trump uses the words ‘climate change’ or not.”

“What should make Southern California fearful is that climate change could mean a future of more frequent and more intense wildfires. Today’s fires will end, and what we do afterward—assessing how to better prepare, and how and whether to rebuild—will influence the damage from the fires next time.”